One Latina's Path Through Marriage and Family Therapy Training

Abstract

Trainers and educators of Marriage and Family Therapy must take into consideration the importance of culture, ethnicity, and language of students of color, international students, and bi/multicultural students. Therapists-in-training invariably find themselves exploring how their professional and personal identities are going to integrate, especially when doing therapy in a language other than English. This paper describes the journey of one therapist of color, a Latina. It raises issues and questions about incongruencies that arise as bilingual or multilingual therapists incorporate systems theory, systemic thinking, and therapeutic language with the expectations, values, and beliefs of their own ethnic cultures.

Key Words:

• Therapists of color
• cultural diversity
• therapist training
• professional identity
• bilingual therapy